I remember the first time I was introduced the world of blogging with the blog of a friend of mine. I would go and look at her blog and realize she hadn't posted anything since the last time I read it and feel so disappointed. What's the point of having a blog if you don't update it every day!! :-) Now that I have my own, I totally understand - there are MANY reasons I don't post that regularly. Just a couple of those reasons are: 1) our regular schedule seems pretty boring and not 'newsworthy' so to speak. 2) our regular schedule is so packed and affords little time to update! But since it has almost been 2 months since I have updated, I'm sure I can come up with a few things to say. I do have to say, January just flew by! The 3rd week was significant in that Nicole spent a whole week with her best friend from kindergarten, Morgan, and her family at Rendevous, which is an event where people get together and enact living and dressing as they did in the 1800's. It was a fantastic experience for her, and she's already making plans for next year. Here are a couple of pictures from her time. Check out the washing her hair in a bucket thing! :-)

That same week, our church flew Tim and me out to Dallas for a conference with some others from our church, and I even got to see my brother and sister-in-law while we were there! Very cool! Then a week later, we went down to Port Charlotte where my brother, my aunt, my neice, and her boyfriend were all in town so we had a little mini-reunion. My mom brought the wigs out and we had a blast goofing off with them!

Two weeks later - it was Valentines Day!! I worked 9-1 on Valentine's Day, and Tim worked 1-9, so he planned ahead, avoided the crowds, and took me to lunch the day before at a tea room in our town. We had the BEST time - gold star to him! Here's a picture from our time there.

This leads us up to the present. Three days ago, early Thursday morning, we loaded the triplets up on a bus with a bunch of other teenagers and chaperones, where they drove to Tallahassee and spent that day through yesterday presenting bills, voting in committees, and just experiencing the way government operates. It was such a great opportunity for them! Both Nathan and Nicole's bills made it on the docket, and Noah won an award! Nicole even had the opportunity to present her bill, and Nathan was chosen as a page and loved it! I am so proud of them! Wait until you see these pictures - they look so grown up! I feel like breaking into the song, Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof!

Nicholas has spent the weekend at a church youth retreat, and Tim and I spent Thursday night and all day Friday and Saturday conducting a very powerful marriage intensive, thank you, Lord! So we were all very busy, but doing things we love to do! We will be leaving in a couple of hours to go pick up Nicholas at his retreat, and then tomorrow starts another week. I hope and pray the beginning of your year has been great, and the Lord is blessing and keeping you in Him. Blessings to all!

Tim & Jodie

Tim and Jodie have been married since Nov. 5, 1988. Tim is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and retired city of Tampa Firefighter. Jodie is a happily laid off IBM/AT&T 21 yr veteran employee turned stay-at-home home-schooling mom (say that fast three times!). She works very part-time for a local Christian author and speaker. They have four wonderful children: triplets Nathan, Nicole, and Noah born 11/16/97 and Nicholas born 5/16/99.